When Radio Commercial Breaks Are Longer Than The Entire Show

Ask most here how long they would sit through the average radio commercial break and though many of us depend on them to pay our salary, the answer would probably be close to zero.

I’ve long complained that the stations I listen to all go to spots at the exact same time, operating on clocks that mandate breaks at :15, :30, :45 and sometimes :56. No matter where you tune, there’s a commercial airing and it can get very frustrating, especially when they’re poorly written or presented.

But really, how many spots in a row are too many?

I thought about that again last night, as I listened to a show on, of all places, WLW-AM in Cincinnati. What they did was simply mind blowing. The host threw to a break at :26 minutes after the hour, and there was a 90 sec. newsbreak at the half hour (which centered solely on the Oscars) before they went to even more spots.

The show I’d been listening to didn’t return until :38 minutes past the hour. That means they went with 12 agonizing minutes of spots! Think of how long that is. Even if you’re willing to include the ABC news update as part of the programming, that left 10 minutes of uninterrupted and show momentum-killing shilling.

That is just ridiculous and a guaranteed tune-out. Even CFRB, which is notorious for commercial overload, wouldn’t go that far.

If you ever wondered why radio listenership isn’t what it used to be, here’s a perfect example of why. I just hope one of those future sponsors is an ad for a “spot” remover. We could use a lot more of those.